A Rebel's Guide to Alexandra Kollontai

Bookmarks Rebel's Guides

by Emma Davis

Alexandra Kollontai was a revolutionary socialist who devoted her life to the fight for women's liberation and human freedom. She played a prominent role in the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917. Kollontai located the struggle for the liberation of women at the centre of the fight for socialism. A committed internationalist, she was one of a number of socialist women who launched International Working Women's Day in1910 to celebrate and unite the struggle of women workers across the globe. Kollontai became a leading member of the revolutionary party. At a time when most countries denied women the right to vote, she became the Commissar (Minister) of Social Welfare in the first Bolshevik government. This short introduction to Kollontai's life argues that her revolutionary ideas and activism contain vital lessons for the struggle for socialism and women's liberation today.

Genres: Feminism, Politics, Nonfiction

64 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 29, 2019

Reviews

[Andrew Stone]

Clear, polemical summary of the life of an important, often neglected Russian revolutionary. The format is pithy so if you want more depth look to Cathy Porter's biography. Even so, I did think more space could have been given to her time in the Workers' Opposition. Her arguments for democratising the revolution was an important counter to the growing beaucratisation and authoritarianism in party and state but they are only summarised in passing then dismissed somewhat out of hand with reference to Trotsky. I'm afraid this reflects a knee-jerk anti-oppositionism that has taken root in the SWP, of which the author is a member.

[Till Bier]

A very positively written text about a not so prominent figure of the Bolsheviks. It is very interesting to see the feminist view on socialism, how important women were for starting the revolution. Also shows how important it is to stick up for rights of others, even if they don’t affect you directly. It is very positive on the early accomplishments of the first years of the Soviet Union.

The ending only glances over how she did a complete 180, when Stalin rose to power and supported removing women’s rights, for which she had fought earlier. Since it was a big part of her life, it should be fairly presented in this book aswell. That is my only critique.

[Arno]

Very short introduction to Kollontai, so obviously it is missing a lot of background and nuance. Still, some more diverse sources would've been nice instead of liberally quoting Kollontai herself. Same with the somewhat partisan viewpoint on the Revolution. But in the end I learned quite a bit about this great revolutionary woman!

[Minea Alex]

A quick read that gives you an idea about the life and work of Alexandra Kollontai and the developement of the Russian Revolution.
It’s a good startingn point for anyone who has an interest in the people who developed socialism in Russia.

[Martin Empson]

Excellent introduction to this near forgotten revolutionary and a profound radical writer on the politics of sexual liberation .

[Manolo Ferrer]

Sad to see Alexandra's memory is not respected here.

[Antonella]

Compact and a good introduction to the accomplishments of Kollontai

[Kizza]

A short and quite basic introduction to Alexandra Kollontai. Its a shame though that the book was not sufficiently referenced, and where it was, the only thing in the references was the title of a piece and not its date, publisher or anything else. I also found disagreement with some of the points made in the last chapter which if anything seemed to move away from Kollontai's views on more progressive sexuality and seemed quite bigoted.

All in all this was a decent short book, with basic information about Kollontai and a few of her views, its a nice little introduction but if you want more elucidation on Kollontai's thoughts it may be better to choose a different book, as a lot of points are repeated from what little is chosen.